The Bisbee buzz: Shopping, dining, funky spirit

One small city in southeastern Arizona gets slapped with a certain adjective so often you expect to see it listed that way on maps: Quirky Bisbee.

Although intended as a compliment, the Q-word pigeonholes as much as it defines. Bisbee, a former mining town blessed with a spectacular setting and Old World architectural flourishes, has emerged as a desirable and multifaceted destination garnering national acclaim. Historic and artsy, creaky and classy, Bisbee has evolved. Quirkily, of course.

Bisbee sits at 5,300 feet in the Mule Mountains. Unlike other hamlets that cling to a hillside or nestle in a canyon, Bisbee appears to be spackled into the nooks and crannies of the rugged terrain. Clusters of houses zigzag up cliff faces, defying gravity and common sense. Others flow in and out of gulches and spill over ledges. Narrow streets, often no more than a ribbon of like-minded rubble, curl into the hills and vanish. Some houses can be reached only by stairs. Some stairs can be reached only by other stairs.

Think of the least likely spot imaginable to build a city. Got it? Welcome to Bisbee.

Yet it wasn't a skewed sense of humor that prompted such fanciful civic planning. The city sprawled forth out of necessity, straddling one of the richest mineral sites in the world. Mines produced nearly 3 million ounces of gold and more than 8 billion pounds of copper, plus silver, lead and zinc. By the early 1900s, Bisbee's population exceeded 20,000, making it a bona fide Western metropolis.

The inevitable bust followed the boom, and the last mine closed in the mid-1970s. As blue-collar working folks moved out, those of an artistic temperament moved in. Shops and galleries opened, houses and shacks were refurbished, often set ablaze with color. Murals splashed across walls, odd sculptures sprang up in postage-stamp-size yards, and cars were adorned with paint, sod, even plastic toys. "Quirky" emerged as the currency of Bisbee's fledgling tourism industry.

In recent years, a new wave of artistic types answered the siren song of Bisbee, bringing with them different skill sets and vision. Building upon the off-kilter foundation already laid, they gently nudged the city in a slightly more upscale direction.

Today, Bisbee boasts an array of activities, top-notch galleries, fine dining and some of the most individualized accommodations found in the state. To get there from Phoenix, take Interstate 10 east past Tucson to Benson, then take Arizona 80 southeast to Bisbee. It's about 205 miles one way.